AECP Celebration Stencil Techniques

Next up in my Altenew Certified Educator Program (AECP) course line-up, was Celebration Stencil Techniques. Several stencil applications were featured in the course, from creating your own stencils with dies to various ink blending techniques. The technique I chose to adopt for my class project was to stencil with pastes.

I first started with my background by selecting the Altenew Sphere Stencil. I was looking to creating a soft pink background by mixing embossing paste with dye ink, but when I went to open my jar of embossing paste it had dried to the point of unusability, so after throwing it away, I had to course correct. I went looking through my stash until I found a new jar of Simon Hurley’s “Cross My Heart” Solar Paste which is a translucent shimmery pink perfect for using over inks. I decided this would be a nice addition to my pink ink-blended stencil design I had decided to now start with.

Next up, it was time to decorate my sphere. I pulled out my Build-A-Garden Dear Dahlias set and went about assembling a layered die-cut flower for my feature image. Instead of just using colored cardstock I thought I would add interest by using a floral pattern paper I had in my stash for a few of the layers. After die cutting each layer from both magenta card stock and paper, I used the side of a pencil to gently curl the tips of my petals to add dimension, and then adhered each layer using both a combination of glue and foam tape. When piecing each layer, I used the layering guide provided with the packaging along with the helpful arrows cut within the center of each die to ensure proper placement. The photo below shows a closeup of the final flower and all of its dimension.

To help complete the design, I also needed greenery. I grabbed my Itty Bitty Branches die set from my stash and cut two types of leafy branches, one from apple green card stock and the second from a soft green stripe paper to keep with my pattern paper theme. Once everything was tucked in and glue down, I grabbed my Versatile Greetings die set and cut a “Love You” sentiment in charcoal gray cardstock with a shadow background made from the magenta cardstock scraps of my dahlia. Just a few added embellishments and my card was complete.

Thanks for checking this out!